Medical appliance



March-18 1924. 1,487,252

J. M. LORE MEDICAL APPLIANCE Filed May 11. 1921 Patented Mar. 18, 1924..

UNITED STATES some at. LURE, or new YORK, n. Y., ASSIGNQR 1'0 LILLIAN swear, n. Y.

LANGEL, OF NEW MEDICAL APPLIANCE.

Application filed May 11, 1921. Serial No. 468,608.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l[, JOHN M. Loan, a citizen of the United States. residing in the city of New York, county of Bronx, and 5 State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Medical Appliances,

of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to medical apparatus and the method employed in the use thereof, having reference more particularly to appliances and processes for treating medicinally internal membranes and other affected parts; and has for an object to provide a method and device of the class described whereby diseased surfaces may be more safely and effectually treated than heretofore attainable.

Generally considered. my invention com prises a combination of elements or steps employed to produce much desired therapeutic results which have been heretofore only imperfectly accomplished by devices which are lacking in thoroughness of operation and often cause injurious reactions upon sensitive and infirm membranes. In cleansing anatomical passages douches are frequently administered by physicians and by patients themselves, and especially designed apparatus is to be had; but in using any form of douche a definite amount of pressure is necessarily employed to wash from the infected surfaces whatever secretions may be ad hering thereto. When such treatment is used in the nasal passage, undue shock results and in many instances foreign sub-- stances and infected matter are forced into the inner ear or otherwise to cause serious injury to the patient. Even in less objectionable forms the effect of a douche upon the tender mucous membranes may be observed wherein, for example. the, onrush of the medicament has an objectionable gagging tendency that is not only most disagreeable but often attended with serious consequences.

Hence, in order to avoid many of the objectionable features to which reference has been made, it has been attempted to relieve congested parts entirely by the suction'process which is by some practitioner's called the dry douche. This method, while free from many of the evils referred to, and possessing peculiar advantages of its own, nevertheless is insutlicient and often wholly inefiective in so far as it may function as a cleansing means. It has accordingly been attempted to solve the problem by combining the two methods employing suction and douching, simultaneously in some instances and alternately in others.

In uniting the two principles, however. many seriously objectionable features of each system were retained. An adaptation of the suction. method is employed where, for example, a fountain syringe is used on one side of the nasal passage and on the other a waste tube acting as the long leg of a siphon. The force of suction in such a case is wholly dependent upon, and varies with, the force of the supply and hence it often occurs, in increasing the suction to make it sufficiently strong to draw off the accumulated discharge. the violence of the douche is correspondingly intensified so much so as to endanger the comfort and welfare of the patient.

My improved apparatus and method therefore provide a suction process whereby the force employed may be accurately predetermined and controlled throughout the treatment, the solution furthermore being drawn into and through the passages wholly by the suction method, with a beneficial .hyperaemia induced thereby.

Generally described, then, my invention comprises two sections or members of a suction duct or tube suitably connected at one extremit to pumping or similar mechanism for exhausting its contents, the tube having its opposite end provided with appliances especially adapted to the conformation of the part of the body to be treated; the other member constituting a duct for conveying solutions into the region drained by the first mentioned member.

. These two components of my apparatus, namely, the discharge. and supply members, while adapted to be employed as a unit mechanism need not be physically united together; although for convenience the two 100 members may be permanently linked together, as illustrated in the drawings, for exam le,-when the apparatus is used wholly forceansing and treating the nasal passa 'es.

iikewise my invention, obviously adaptable to diversified uses, will have its two parts attached. to the particular mechanism employed so as to constitute a continuous will be connected to the supply tube of the cathpter, which is usually an inner tube inserted longitudinally within the body of the instrument, the cavity or passage of the body being treated forming a virtual link connecting the two arms.

I also employ intermediate the ends of the suction arm a receptacle for the lodgement of the secretions removed from infected surfaces, which receptacle also serves as a vacuum chamber to equalize and temper the force of the suction and thereby to modify the violence of the inflow into sensitive and delicate passages.

This receptacle chamber is not considered an indispensable feature of my invention but in the simplest aspect of my improvement the deposit chamber adds appreciably to the beneficial operation thereof and therefore in the preferred embodiment illustrated this and other features are described as a part of my invention in its most complete form.

Having reference to the drawings illustrative of a preferred form of'apparatus embodying and employed in the practice of my invention,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the apparatus employed in nasal treatments;

Fig. 2 is a view of a type of nozzle employed in nasal treatments;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a detail; and

Fig. 4 illustrates a type of nasal piece applicable to a single nostril or similar cavity. 1

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 represents a vessel for containing in convenient form the medicament to be employed in the use of myimprovedapparatus, which may be in any convenient form to receive the tubular arm 10 of the preferred form of my invention illustrated, which arm is a tube of suitable diametenpreferably flexible and having a weighted end 11. The weight 11 may be of any convenient type such as the simple device illustrated where a short section of glass tubing is inserted into the end of the rubber tube 10.

At the opposite end of the tubular member 10 is shown in the drawing a glass bulbular nose piece 15 which is emplo ed with my apparatus in treating nasal a eetions, while for other uses different'appliant-es will obviously be required.

As already seen, the preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawings-is for convenience shown in connection with the nasal organ and accordingly a second nose piece 25 is employed which is similar inform and in function, forming the terminal of the suetion member or arm 20. The arms 10 and 20 are held in the. form illustrated by means of the block 19 havin parallel holes 18 for receiving the respective tubes constituting he arms and sup-porting the nose pieces 15 and 25 atsuitable distances apart when employed in nasal application; the tubes 10, 20 being themselves flexible, will admit of further adjustment necessary by reason of difference in facial conformations.

I find in employing my process and apparatus for nasal'treatment that beneficial results are attainable by forming bot-h the nose pieces 15, 25 with the outer end partially bent as shown at 16 in Fig. 2. Thus these members may be inserted into the nostrils so as to point backwardly as well as upwardly, with the important advantage that the irrigating current may thus be directed along the lower surfaces of the passages, wher there is the greatest tendency for thesecretions to accumulate in the process of their removal.

The suction arm 20 may, in fulfilling the broader conception of my invention, be connected directly to an aspirator, pump or other exhausting device, it being only necessary to provide in such connection. means for adequately modifying and controllingthe strengthof the suction. I therefore employ a simple form of aspirator 50 at the opposite end of the suction tube 20 which in turn is attached to a convenient water faucet primarily regulating the force of the suction by the amount of the water flow therethrough. i

In the more complete form of my improved apparatus, however, the suction arm 20 has the added tubular member 40 which may be termed the aspirator section of the suction arm, a receptacle 3O uniting the two sections into a single continuous suction duct or passageway.

The receptacle 30 as illustrated comprises a jar preferably made of glass for purposes of observation, and having a close fitting stopper 31 through which passes an arm of each of the respective angle tubes 22 and 42. These angle tubes are preferably made of glass and bent into the form shown and have operably connected to their other arms corresponding ends of the flexible tubes 20 and 40. a

The receptacle 3O performs two distinctive functions, namely, it serves to receive the excrements drawn from the infected membranes and to modify the force of the suction employed. The advantages of rendering visible the discharge matter is often found invaluable in diagnosis, especially in clinical demonstrations, and is furthermore free from the unsanitary conditions resulting when infected matter is'allowed to pass into a lavatory for ordinary use, for example, into which the aspirator 50 discharges.

Moreover, when employed in treating many forms of nasal catarrh, the mucus removed is more or less solid or viscous and frequently comes away in such quantities as to clog the narrow tube 52 of the aspirator which is shown in Fig. 8. Thus by maintaining a constant diametral width to the duct from the opening in the nose piece 25' to the discharging end of the elbow 22 no stoppage of the flow through the apparatus will ordinarily be possible.

The apparatus has thus far been described principally as applicable to nasal treatments for which the embodiment illustrated in the drawings is especially adaptable. Thus the two similar nose pieces 15 and 25, it has been seen, when introduced into the respective nostrils of a patient,-in conjunction with the cavity into which they enter form an intermediate chamber of the continuous passage through which goes the fluid drawn from the vessel 1 through the duct 10 and passing thence into the duct 20, the receptacles 30 and duct 40. In circulating from the duct 10 to the duct 20 the fluid passes out of the mouth 17 of the nose piece 15 into and through the mouth of the other member but only when both pieces are pressed into intimate contact with the openings of the nostrils. Hence for nasal treatments I employ the form of nozzle shown with the enlarged body portions that conduce to the close contact referred to.

When it is desired to irrigate only one side of the nasal passage, as for instance where the communication between nostrils has been closed, I employ with my suction apparatus a single nose piece 60 having the two tubula-r stems 61 and 62 for connection with the supply tube members 10 and 20 respectively.

The nose piece 60 when thus connected with my apparatus and inserted in one nostril, will exert the same suction upon the linings of the passage, as the nose piece 15 in its action as above described, the liquid being supplied through the small inner tube 65.

The nose piece 60 has a sliding tube 65, preferably of metal, and having .a stem with straight sides adapted to slide longitudi: nally within a central orifice in the rubber bushing in the tubular stem 61 of the piece 60.

The inner tube 65 has at its outer end the enlarged head for-receiving the tube end 13 of the supply arm of my apparatus and has upon the 66 thereof the lengthy flexible tube '68 of suitable length to enter the nostril. Thus when desired the soft and liable tube end may be inserted more deep y into the nostril or withdrawn as required. The medicine being thus carried to the depth of the passage is by the suction member drawn 'back into the body cavity of the piece 60 and thence into the duct 20 as first above described 7 Other types of instruments may obviously be employed in the same general manner with my approved apparatus. Thus when it is desired to treat the bladder, the genital organs or other cavities of the body, the respective associated ends 13, 23 of the tubular arms 10 and 20 are attached to supply and discharge orifices or tube ends of the particular instrument used in this manner. In such case, for establishing the continuous flow through the cavity to be medicated, the respective supply and discharge tubes must have their opposite open ends separated so that the fluid will pass out of one into the cavity being treated and then into the discharge tube through which the suction is formed. Thus a catheter provided with a return tube, or a trocar having means for return flow may be used in connection with my process, upon being attached to the respective tubes 10 and 20.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In an irrigating device, means for insertion into the cavity to be irrigated to close the same and having a pair of disconnected duets with spaced external openings in the portion inserted into the cavity, means for creating suction in one of the ducts, and means controlled by said suction means for supplying an irrigating fluid to the other of the ducts.

2. In an irrigating device, means for in sertion into the cavity to be irrigated to close the same and having a pair of disconnected duets with spaced external openings in the portion inserted into the cavity, means for creating suction in one of the ducts, and means for supplying an irrigating fluid without head to the other of the ducts.

3. In an irrigating device, means for insection into the cavity to be irrigated to close the same and having a pair of disconnected duets with spaced external openings in the portion inserted into the cavity, a suction creating deviceconnected to one of the ducts, a reservoir for an irrigating liquid disposed at a height not above that of the cavity and connected to the other duct.

4. In an irrigating device. for a cavity, means for closing the cavity and having two disconnected ducts therein opening into the cavity at spaced points, a, suction creating device connected to one of the ducts for creating a. partial vacuum in the cavity, and a reservoir for an irrigating fluid connected 6 to the other due-t whereby the suction in the one duct will cause a movement of the irrigating fluid from the reservoir through the cavity without an internal pressure on the Walls of the cavity-Which i greater than atmospheric pressure. 10 In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN M. LORE. 

